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New Obamacare Chief Confirmed With Republican Support

The Senate approved Sylvia Mathews Burwell as the new HHS secretary on Thursday.

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 08: Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget Sylvia Mathews Burwell waits for the beginning of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health Committee May 8, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. If confirmed, Burwell will succeed Kathleen Sebelius to become the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The chan­ging of the guard at the Health and Hu­man Ser­vices De­part­ment has fin­ished with little to no fire­works.

The Sen­ate voted 78-17 Thursday af­ter­noon to con­firm Sylvia Math­ews Bur­well as the next HHS sec­ret­ary. The fi­nal vote fol­lowed a pro­ced­ur­al vote to end de­bate on her nom­in­a­tion Wed­nes­day, which passed 67-28.

As head of one of the biggest gov­ern­ment agen­cies, and charged with im­ple­ment­ing the still-con­tro­ver­sial Af­ford­able Care Act, the HHS sec­ret­ary holds a highly politi­cized po­s­i­tion. This be­came all the more true fol­low­ing the dis­astrous rol­lout of the fed­er­al en­roll­ment web­site in Oc­to­ber, which had Re­pub­lic­ans call­ing for Se­beli­us’s ter­min­a­tion as early as last fall.

Yet Bur­well’s con­firm­a­tion pro­cess has been sur­pris­ingly smooth. The former Of­fice of Man­age­ment and Budget dir­ect­or has had the sup­port of sev­er­al top Re­pub­lic­an law­makers from the be­gin­ning, in­clud­ing Sens. John Mc­Cain, Tom Coburn, Or­rin Hatch, and Richard Burr. Four­teen Re­pub­lic­ans joined Demo­crats to ad­vance her nom­in­a­tion to a fi­nal vote Wed­nes­day.

“No one should mis­read my vote today as an ac­know­ledge­ment that all is well in the world of Obama­care and HHS,” Sen. Hatch said Thursday, ahead of the vote. “[But Bur­well] has ac­know­ledged, for her part, that prob­lems ex­ist, and is com­mit­ted to fix those prob­lems. Un­der this ad­min­is­tra­tion, that’s prob­ably the best we can hope for.” The sen­at­or from Utah said he would do all he can to help the sec­ret­ary in her new role.

However, the new HHS chief cer­tainly has her work cut out for her. The easy part is over; Bur­well will now have to deal with the con­tin­ued chal­lenges of im­ple­ment­ing the health care law — in­clud­ing on­go­ing tech­nic­al prob­lems, policy changes, polit­ic­al op­pos­i­tion, and loom­ing premi­um rate fil­ings — along with oth­er is­sues that may arise in the de­part­ment. Law­makers hope that her will­ing­ness to work across the aisle will ease some of these po­ten­tial road­b­locks.

"Chuck Rosenberg, the acting head of the Drug Enforcement Agency who has found himself and his agency at odds with the Trump administration in recent months, told staff members Tuesday that he is planning to step down from his post." The Obama administration holdover will step down on October 1.

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HAD BEGUN TO PUBLICLY CRITICIZE TRUMP

Sen. Corker to Retire

1 hours ago

THE DETAILS

Another Republican member of Congress is showing himself out the door. After much thought, consideration and family discussion over the past year, Elizabeth and I have decided that I will leave the United States Senate when my term expires at the end of 2018,” said Sen. Bob Corker in a statement. The Tennessean has served since 2006.

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NOT ILLEGAL, BUT MUST BE FORWARDED TO WORK ACCOUNTS

At Least 6 WH Advisors Used Private Email Accounts

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THE LATEST

Jared Kushner, Stephen Bannon, Reince Priebus, Gary Cohn, Stephen Miller, and Ivanka Trump sent or received some emails on personal accounts that related to White House business. "Officials are supposed to use government emails for their official duties so their conversations are available to the public and those conducting oversight. But it is not illegal for White House officials to use private email accounts as long as they forward work-related messages to their work accounts so they can be preserved."

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SAYS CONTACTS WERE “BENIGN”

Stone Releases Correspondence with Guccifer 2.0

1 hours ago

THE LATEST

"Roger Stone, a longtime friend and adviser to Donald Trump, released correspondence Tuesday" with the online hacker known as Guccifer 2.0 , which "U.S. intelligence agencies said was used by Russian government-linked entities to distribute embarrassing information about Democrats during the 2016 election. The disclosures came in a 47-page opening statement made available to reporters in advance of Mr. Stone’s Tuesday appearance in front of the House Intelligence Committee." Stone called his contacts with Guccifer "limited" and "benign."

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PRIEBUS, SPICER, HICKS, MCGAHAN

Mueller Could Start Interviewing White House Figures This Week

1 hours ago

THE LATEST

"Special counsel investigators could start interviewing current and former White House staff as soon as later this week regarding the Russian probe, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. One source cautioned it is still being worked out with Robert Mueller's office and said it might be delayed until next week." Among those who could have a sit-down with the special prosecutor: former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former press secretary Sean Spicer, communications director Hope Hicks, White House counsel Don McGahn, communications adviser Josh Raffel and associate counsel James Burnham.